January 14, 2010
TOKYO (AFP) - Police near Tokyo said Wednesday they had arrested three Japanese men and their transsexual "wives" from the Philippines for faking their marriage registrations.
The Philippine nationals used the identification papers of women in their home country to pretend they were born as females so they could marry their Japanese partners, police said.
One couple, a 35-year-old Japanese firefighter and his 40-year-old transsexual partner, allegedly submitted a marriage document to the Ota city government north of Tokyo in 2007 using the real name of a Philippine woman.
The marriage allowed the transsexual person from the Philippines to obtain a visa and an alien registration photo ID card under the Filipina's name.
Another couple, a 51-year-old Japanese man and a 42-year-old transsexual, were arrested in a similar case, said a spokesman at Saitama prefectural police north of Tokyo.
The two couples have been indicted for faking documents, but their trials have not yet started, the police official said.
The couples met at transsexual bars and had been living together until they were arrested last month, he said.
The transsexuals "wanted to live without difficulties while working in Japan," the police official said.
A third couple were arrested last year and convicted of faking the documents, receiving suspended prison terms.
